Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Lord of Light
Here’s a Guardian article by Sam Jordison that finds a connection between a failed attempt to make a feature film out of Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light (1967) and the so-called Canadian Caper that spirited embassy workers out of Iran in 1979-80. By the way, it’s a review of Lord of Light, which asks the question, “Is this book profound, or daft – or both?” SF Strangelove votes for both.

A New Gormenghast novel
Mervyn Peake’s wife and long-time collaborator, Maeve, wrote a fourth book in the Gormenghast series (Titus Groan, Gormenghast, Titus Alone) shortly after his death in 1968, according to the Telegraph. The manuscript was discovered recently by a granddaughter in the attic of her south London home.

John Clute on Galileo’s Dream
In John Clute’s first column at his new venue, Strange Horizons, he essays Kim Stanley Robinson’s new novel Galileo’s Dream. “Galileo is a stunning creation, a histrion utterly real to the eye, a porridge of sensation who turns on a dime into icon.”

Christopher Hitchens on J.G. Ballard
Calling him “our great specialist in catastrophe,” Hitchens, in an Atlantic article, celebrates Ballard’s bleak deadpan humor, his readiness to imagine a future without human survival.